With all due respect to some of the past posters, our economy has hardly collapsed. The stock market has taken a beating of late but- despite popular misconception- Wall Street and The Economy are not exactly one in the same. This is a glitch compared to a serious depression and we are still the richest country in the world by magnitudes. Also, the government mandating anything is usually a bad idea. You want to talk about lack of competition, lets talk about the Big Government being bound by law to use one competitor. If apple or microsoft or anyone else can supply a better or more relevant product, do you really want to deny your government the ability to pursue that option? Im not saything they can, just that making it law is as anti-competetive as you can possibly get.
Especially coming from MIT, this article seems rather shallow, idealistic, and pretty blind. Democracy hasn't spread anywhere. Dictatorships with the very thin facade of democarcy have become quite popular around the world, but thats about it. It also wouldn't be too far off calling the agenda-ridden world media the 'Big Lie.' And for all the rhetoric about technology and the internet bringing freedom into China, the "people's" party seems to have gained total control of the way the internet functions in China. In the US, we even have the faceless, never-ending threat of terrorism(or The Enemy) that we are letting justify some rather frightening laws that will be using technology against the populace. The situations in 1984 were intentionally extreme to illicit an extreme reaction, but the idea of technology used as a tool to control the minds and actions of people seems like a reality to me.
The problem isn't whether or not having the Big G following us around with a pen and paper would prove effective. They would probably make all kinds of arrests. The problem is the Big G is following us around with a pen and paper, period. If the government does not have a warrant, they should not be tracking, or mandate the tracking, of my behaivor. They should not have access to the books I read, the places I visit, my personal conversations, the movies I rent, what I buy, or anything else. Once a system like this is in place, what keeps anyone (*cough!* Ashcroft is a lunatic*cough!*) in the government from going after anyone they feel like, only needing to slap the word "terrorist" on them? Hackers are terrorists; gangs are terrorists; pornographers, trenchcoat mafia, people who don't use Windows, communists, greens, libertarians, anyone who makes an.mp3, immigrants, video game makers, video game players, rappers, and on and on all fall into someone in the government's definition of "terrorist," and just about every one of us is could fall into one of these categories.
This is one of the worst scientific assertions I have ever read. Africans will keep evolving because they have AIDS? Last time I checked, AIDS was doing a pretty good job of killing Westerners, too. What about cancer? Western populations are being decimated by cancer, which is largely being caused by environments we created. And most importantly, what about disease, viruses, and other events that we just haven't encountered? If something like the Ebola virus goes airborn, I think you'll see some pretty hasty natural selection in South Dakota, Brighton, Sri Lanka, Hong Kong and ever other corner of the globe, regardless of how "western" they are. Evolution is about breeding only in that those that are left alive get to breed, and just because we've had a good run over the last few decades doesn't mean we're invincable. Evolution is not a species getting bigger or stronger or smarter, scaling some sort of ladder to reach an ultimate goal of perfection. If being dumb as a rock assists in our survival, thats evolution. Anyone interested should check out Galapagos, by Kurt Vonnegut. Hummanity is wiped out except for a bunch of idiots stuck on the Galapagos Islands, where a new race of humans continues.
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With all due respect to some of the past posters, our economy has hardly collapsed. The stock market has taken a beating of late but- despite popular misconception- Wall Street and The Economy are not exactly one in the same. This is a glitch compared to a serious depression and we are still the richest country in the world by magnitudes. Also, the government mandating anything is usually a bad idea. You want to talk about lack of competition, lets talk about the Big Government being bound by law to use one competitor. If apple or microsoft or anyone else can supply a better or more relevant product, do you really want to deny your government the ability to pursue that option? Im not saything they can, just that making it law is as anti-competetive as you can possibly get.
Especially coming from MIT, this article seems rather shallow, idealistic, and pretty blind. Democracy hasn't spread anywhere. Dictatorships with the very thin facade of democarcy have become quite popular around the world, but thats about it. It also wouldn't be too far off calling the agenda-ridden world media the 'Big Lie.' And for all the rhetoric about technology and the internet bringing freedom into China, the "people's" party seems to have gained total control of the way the internet functions in China. In the US, we even have the faceless, never-ending threat of terrorism(or The Enemy) that we are letting justify some rather frightening laws that will be using technology against the populace. The situations in 1984 were intentionally extreme to illicit an extreme reaction, but the idea of technology used as a tool to control the minds and actions of people seems like a reality to me.
The problem isn't whether or not having the Big G following us around with a pen and paper would prove effective. They would probably make all kinds of arrests. The problem is the Big G is following us around with a pen and paper, period. If the government does not have a warrant, they should not be tracking, or mandate the tracking, of my behaivor. They should not have access to the books I read, the places I visit, my personal conversations, the movies I rent, what I buy, or anything else. Once a system like this is in place, what keeps anyone (*cough!* Ashcroft is a lunatic*cough!*) in the government from going after anyone they feel like, only needing to slap the word "terrorist" on them? Hackers are terrorists; gangs are terrorists; pornographers, trenchcoat mafia, people who don't use Windows, communists, greens, libertarians, anyone who makes an .mp3, immigrants, video game makers, video game players, rappers, and on and on all fall into someone in the government's definition of "terrorist," and just about every one of us is could fall into one of these categories.
This is one of the worst scientific assertions I have ever read. Africans will keep evolving because they have AIDS? Last time I checked, AIDS was doing a pretty good job of killing Westerners, too. What about cancer? Western populations are being decimated by cancer, which is largely being caused by environments we created. And most importantly, what about disease, viruses, and other events that we just haven't encountered? If something like the Ebola virus goes airborn, I think you'll see some pretty hasty natural selection in South Dakota, Brighton, Sri Lanka, Hong Kong and ever other corner of the globe, regardless of how "western" they are. Evolution is about breeding only in that those that are left alive get to breed, and just because we've had a good run over the last few decades doesn't mean we're invincable. Evolution is not a species getting bigger or stronger or smarter, scaling some sort of ladder to reach an ultimate goal of perfection. If being dumb as a rock assists in our survival, thats evolution. Anyone interested should check out Galapagos, by Kurt Vonnegut. Hummanity is wiped out except for a bunch of idiots stuck on the Galapagos Islands, where a new race of humans continues.